کُفْرَانِ نِعْمَت — Rejection of Blessings: Scholarly Examples
This is one of the most profound and recurring themes in Quranic moral theology. Scholars across traditions have given rich, layered examples of kufr al-niʿmah — and they operate at multiple levels: individual, communal, civilizational, and spiritual.
What is Kufr al-Niʿmah?
The root ك-ف-ر literally means to cover or to bury. Just as a farmer covers seed under soil (kāfir al-zarʿ), the one who commits kufr al-niʿmah buries and conceals the blessing — through ingratitude, misuse, denial, or arrogance. It sits on a spectrum:
From mere forgetfulness → to active denial → to attributing the blessing to other than Allah
Category One: Individual Examples
- Iblīs — The Primordial Ingrate
Almost every major scholar — al-Ṭabarī, Ibn Kathīr, Mawdūdī, Sayyid Quṭb — points to Iblīs as the archetypal example of kufr al-niʿmah:
∙ He was given eons of worship, nearness to Allah, and elevated rank among the angels
∙ Yet when one command tested his gratitude, his arrogance surfaced
∙ He did not deny Allah’s existence — he denied the worth of the blessing by refusing to honor the context in which it was given
∙ Quṭb writes in Ẓilāl: his kufr began not with denial but with self-congratulation — he looked at the niʿmah and saw himself, not the Giver - Qārūn (Korah) — The Niʿmah of Wealth
(Surah Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:76–82)
∙ Given extraordinary wealth — his treasure keys alone required a group of strong men to carry
∙ His kufr al-niʿmah was the statement: “Innamā ūtītuhu ʿalā ʿilmin ʿindī” — “I was given this because of knowledge I possess”
∙ Al-Qurṭubī explains this as the most dangerous form of ingratitude: attributing the blessing to oneself — skill, intelligence, hard work — thereby erasing Allah from the equation entirely
∙ Mawdūdī notes that Qārūn represents entire civilizations that build their self-image on merit and capability, forgetting that the very capacity to earn was itself a gift
∙ The earth swallowed him — the blessing of ground beneath his feet was withdrawn - The Owner of Two Gardens
(Surah Al-Kahf 18:32–44)
∙ Given two magnificent gardens, a family, abundant produce, flowing rivers
∙ His kufr was subtler: “Mā aẓunnu an tabīda hādhihi abadā” — “I do not think this will ever perish”
∙ Ibn Kathīr identifies this as kufr al-niʿmah through permanence assumption — he treated the blessing as a fixed right rather than a divine loan
∙ He also said: “I do not think the Hour will come” — showing how ingratitude for worldly blessings slides into denial of accountability
∙ Sayyid Quṭb draws the lesson: the moment a person stops seeing the contingency of a blessing — that it could be taken — ingratitude has already set in - The Three Men: The Leper, the Bald Man, and the Blind Man
(Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī & Muslim — cited by nearly all scholars in tafsīr of niʿmah verses)
∙ All three were restored by Allah’s mercy — wealth, health, appearance
∙ Two of them denied that they had ever been poor or ill and refused to help
∙ Al-Nawawī and Ibn Ḥajar both use this ḥadīth to illustrate kufr al-niʿmah through memory erasure — forgetting one’s prior state is itself a form of burying the blessing
∙ The one who remembered and acknowledged his past state retained his blessings; the two who denied lost everything
Category Two: Communal & Civilizational Examples
- The People of Sabaʾ (Sheba)
(Surah Sabaʾ 34:15–19)
This is arguably the most detailed Quranic case study of collective kufr al-niʿmah:
∙ Given: fertile land, two magnificent gardens left and right, a civilizational blessing — “Jannatayn ʿan yamīnin wa shimāl”
∙ Allah declared: “Kulū min rizqi rabbikum wa’shkurū lah” — eat and be grateful
∙ Their response: they turned away (fa aʿraḍū)
∙ Al-Ṭabarī lists their ingratitude in stages:
∙ They complained the gardens were too close — they wanted to travel further to feel important
∙ They sought luxury and distance rather than sufficiency and gratitude
∙ They asked Allah to lengthen their journeys — ingratitude dressed as ambition
∙ The punishment: the great dam (Sadd Maʾrib) was broken, the gardens replaced with bitter fruit and thorny trees
∙ Mawdūdī draws a civilizational lesson: Sabaʾ is the model of a society that achieved peak blessing and then self-destructed through arrogance and ingratitude — he sees this pattern repeating in modern nations - Banū Isrāʾīl in the Wilderness
(Surah Al-Baqarah 2:57–61, Surah Al-Māʾidah 5:20–26)
∙ Given: manna and quails from heaven, shade of clouds, water from struck rock, freedom from Pharaoh
∙ Their kufr al-niʿmah:
∙ “Lan naṣbira ʿalā ṭaʿāmin wāḥid” — “We cannot endure just one kind of food”
∙ They demanded onions, garlic, lentils — preferring the food of slavery over the manna of divine care
∙ Al-Qurṭubī calls this kufr al-niʿmah through comparison and complaint — the blessing is real but the heart fixates on what is absent
∙ Sayyid Quṭb sees this as the psychology of the liberated but spiritually unemancipated — the body left Egypt but the soul remained enslaved to appetite - The Town Destroyed Despite Prosperity
(Surah Al-Naḥl 16:112 — the Parable of the Town)
∙ “Wa ḍaraba’llāhu mathalan qaryatan kānat āminatan muṭmaʾinnatan”
∙ A township given: security, tranquility, provision from every direction
∙ Their response: “Fa kafarat bi anʿumi’llāh” — they disbelieved in Allah’s blessings
∙ Allah made them taste hunger and fear — the precise opposites of the two blessings they rejected
∙ All four major scholars — Ṭabarī, Ibn Kathīr, Qurṭubī, Mawdūdī — agree this verse establishes the Sunnah of Allah: blessing rejected becomes blessing reversed
∙ Mawdūdī notes this verse falls right after Surah Al-Naḥl’s long enumeration of blessings (cattle, rain, ships, stars, the sea) — making the ingratitude all the more stark
Category Three: Spiritual & Subtle Forms
- Using Blessings Against Their Purpose
Al-Ghazālī in Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn gives the most nuanced taxonomy:
∙ The tongue given for dhikr — used for backbiting = kufr al-niʿmah of speech
∙ The eyes given to see signs of Allah — used for ḥarām = kufr al-niʿmah of sight
∙ The intellect given to recognize truth — used to construct arguments for falsehood = kufr al-niʿmah of reason
∙ He writes: every faculty is a trust (amānah); using it against its divine purpose is burying the blessing - The Niʿmah of Time
The Prophet ﷺ said: “Niʿmatāni maghbūnun fīhimā kathīrun min al-nās: al-ṣiḥḥah wa’l-farāgh” — “Two blessings many people are cheated of: health and free time.”
∙ Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī explains magbūn (cheated/defrauded) as someone who possesses a blessing but does not realize its value until it is gone
∙ This is kufr al-niʿmah of unawareness — perhaps the most common form in every age
The Scholars’ Unified TaxonomyForm of Kufr al-NiʿmahExampleScholar Highlighting It Attributing blessing to self Qārūn Al-Qurṭubī, Mawdūdī Assuming permanence Owner of Two Gardens Ibn Kathīr, Quṭb Complaining despite sufficiency Banū Isrāʾīl Al-Ṭabarī, Quṭb Collective arrogance & ambition People of Sabaʾ Mawdūdī, Al-Ṭabarī Using blessing against its purpose General Al-Ghazālī Forgetting prior deprivation Three Men ḥadīth Al-Nawawī, Ibn Ḥajar Spiritual arrogance Iblīs All major scholars Unawareness of value Health & Time ḥadīth Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī
The Quranic Principle Tying It All Together
Surah Ibrāhīm 14:7 —
“La’in shakartum la’azīdannakum wa la’in kafartum inna ʿadhābī la shadīd”
“If you are grateful, I will surely increase you; but if you are ungrateful — My punishment is indeed severe.”
Every scholar treats this as the master equation of niʿmah — gratitude multiplies, ingratitude inverts. The punishment is not always immediate — sometimes Allah gives istidraj (gradual respite) — but the Sunnah of Allah is consistent and inescapable.
Would you like me to expand on any one of these examples in greater depth, or explore how scholars connect kufr al-niʿmah to the concept of istidraj — where blessings are actually increased as a prelude to punishment?
Messages from Quran 